Besides the sunscreen and the swim diapers and all the other things that I eventually did manage to pack for our trip to Florida, my favourite addition to my bag was my new pair of Naot sandals, in the Sophia style.

They were perfectly comfortable as soon as I slipped them on, with their moldable cork footbed. They worked for either sitting by the pool, or walking the outlet malls, or wandering the amusement parks.

I was thankful that the weather stayed warm once we got back, because they are a great addition to my casual work wardrobe for summer.

The orange, red and purple straps are fun, and provide a great accent to the more neutral pieces of my wardrobe.

Have you got your eye on any Naot sandals or shoes for this spring and summer?

Disclosure: I was provided with a pair of Naot Sophia sandals to review. I was not compensated in any other way. My views are my own.

I love avocados, their soft and cool green flesh. Their ability to take on other flavours. The way they mash with a fork. I didn’t even eat an avocado until I was in my twenties. I consider this a great tragedy. All that guacamole I said no to, because I didn’t know what it was, because I was scared, because an avocado was a foreign thing! I weep.

I was sent a kit from Avocados from Mexico (did you know Mexico is the largest producer of avocados in the world?) and presented with a challenge – either make one of the recipes provided, or try to make up my own.

One of my quickest and most satisfying weeknight quick dinners (particularly at the end of the week when I’m fatigued by the whole chief cook and bottle washer thing) is to make bacon sandwiches. I find them especially satisfying when I smear the bread with ripe avocado. I thought, for the purposes of this challenge, I’d actually try to make avocado mayonnaise to fancy it up a bit. This is barely a recipe, since it’s so easy, but oh it does taste good.

Here’s what I did. I got out my Cuisinart hand blender that has a mini food processor attachment. I added one egg yolk and the juice of half a lemon to the base. As that was turning in the processor, I drizzled in some olive oil until it started to emulsify – perhaps half a cup? I was pouring directly from the bottle. At that point, I opened the lid and added in the flesh of one avocado.

When mixed, I spread it on my toasted bread, twisted on some freshly ground salt and pepper, and loaded up each side with sliced tomato and bacon. I don’t actually believe in having the L in the BLT. No lettuce, thanks. But more avocado, please!

Avocado is actually a great substitute for eggs, if you wanted to make a vegan mayonnaise. But of course you probably wouldn’t be making a bacon sandwich if you are a vegan.

Wanna know more about avocados?

Avocados contain nearly 20 vitamins and minerals and more potassium than a banana. While avocados are delicious and extremely healthy (and often) consumed alone, they are even better when served with other vegetables and fruits as their healthy fats (mono and polyunsaturated “good fats” that help lower “bad” LDL cholesterol) help the body absorb more fat-soluble nutrients from the foods paired with avocados.

How do you like your avocados? I might need to go and make some guacamole right now.

The day started off innocently. There’s a mess of dishes and many wine bottles after I hosted book club the night before, but I cleared most of it out of the way while I assembled my breakfast. There’s Beavers that night, after we both go to work. There’s a kid with red eyes, but it doesn’t look like pinkeye to me. It looks like allergies or something. We move through the morning with the assumption that everything will go according to normal routines.

Then the phone call from the school, just before lunch, with the news that the child has convinced the office he has pinkeye. So the nanny has to awaken the toddler that has just gone down for his nap to go back to school to collect said child. Then the husband has to go home to take the pinkeye child to the doctor to get it checked out, convenient for him because he’s about to pass out from man flu.

So the baby’s not napping, the kid who is supposed to be at school all day is not there, and I’m trying to coordinate all of this from my desk while dealing with fifty other things. When I get home, there’s a boy who it is confirmed does *not* have pinkeye (when do I get to say I told you so?) but there’s a baby and husband napping. At 6 pm. Oh no no no no, this is not happening on my watch. I throw some chicken and noodles on the stove, slice up some veggies, and run upstairs.

I woke up the toddler. More like, I awoke the Kracken. He proceeds to scream at me for the next 45 minutes.

I can’t actually even eat my dinner, because he won’t settle down.

The husband comes down at about 6:45, when I am supposed to be taking the older two to Beavers. He holds the toddler, who of course calms down because Daddy is the most wonderful thing ever (total BS), and I try to scarf down my food.

Except, in the middle of it, a crown fell off my tooth.

I thought, at first, that half of a tooth had just fallen out of my mouth and I may have freaked out just a little bit.

Google was very unhelpful when I searched for ‘emergency dentist west Toronto’ so I ended up calling my old dentist. The receptionist calmed me down and confirmed that I did have a crown on that tooth, done in 2009, and that I could wait a couple of days to have it re-cemented.

I’m really missing my crown. It’s hard to eat, but it’s even harder to drink anything. Hot or cold is painful, and coffee through a straw is awkward. I’m getting it fixed Saturday morning, thankfully.

I’m really missing my other crown. The one I wear when I’ve got my working parent shit together. Not this week. Maybe next week.

I am participating in the Muskoka Woods Blogger Campaign by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.

I had a craving for s’mores the other day. I think the last time I’d had them was actually almost a year ago, around a campfire with friends and my oldest kid Oliver, while on a weekend away at Muskoka Woods camp. I couldn’t recreate the sounds and smells of bonfire and camp songs, but once I cooked the marshmallow over the gas stove, and smushed it onto a graham cracker with some chocolate chips, Oliver was immediately reminiscing about his camp weekend last year.

As I said last year, I didn’t attend residential summer camp, and my children likely won’t, either. But I did camp in tents and cabins through Guides, for a good many weekends, and I ended up working at a summer camp as a university student. My oldest two are in Beavers right now, and may continue to Cubs and Scouts, which will give them the chance to experience tenting and cooking hamburgers in burlap or eggs in tins (that was totally my favourite part of Guide camping).

Or they might work at a camp like Muskoka Woods, which is a little more luxurious. A bit more like a resort than a camp. Where the dining hall takes care of your needs, and you might be busy on the high ropes course for half the day. There is an insane amount of stuff to do there. We sampled only a bit of it. And as the video below says, Muskoka Woods summer camp is awesome.

Summer Camp is Awesome from Muskoka Woods on Vimeo.

You can find out more about Muskoka Woods on their website. And if you’re interested in signing your kids up, you can do that right on their website, too.

(psst, click the banner to get a coupon to try Natrel Baboo for free)

Charlie’s about to turn 18 months old and I’m running out of baby milestones. Okay, he’s not talking very much yet, relying instead on very expressive grunting and pointing and the occasional ’up’ and ‘yeah’,  but I haven’t heard him say ‘mummy’ or even ‘onomatopoeia’ so I will look forward to that.

But baby’s first steps? Gosh, 8 months ago. Baby’s first foods? Over a year ago. Baby’s first birthday was a lot of fun. Baby’s first bowl of spaghetti on the head was probably one of my favourites.

He’s still very, very proud of himself for accomplishing things most of us take for granted – or even hate to do. This weekend, he helped me put the groceries away for the first time, and he required me to clap for him at the end of it. I was quite pleased to.

Charlie’s fifth vacation by airplane happens this week.  I’ll be glad to have some Natrel Baboo handy for the journey. I’ve written before how convenient this shelf-stable milk is for travel.

You can like Natrel Baboo’s facebook page for more information about their products, and also to access the coupon if you haven’t requested one from their page before (or you can find it by clicking on the banner at the top of this post).

Disclosure: I am part of the Natrel Baboo Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

A few things – and some of them are more fun than the others.

1. Last week the kids and I participated in a new game on the Teletoon Retro website called Toon Feud. You can log in via your Facebook account and answer questions about cartoons from the good old days, or in our case, about a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that was airing on Teletoon Retro on cable as we were answering questions. (Don’t tell anyone, but us cable-less people were watching the movie on YouTube) I’m going to bet they’ll have more live events like they did last Friday. And we did quite well! We’d like to thank Teletoon Retro for providing us with some treats, including the Turtles’ favourite food for dinner. (That was a quiz question for you. Answer: pizza.) (I was not asked to blog about this, I was not compensated for this post, my views are my own, but we were sent some super fun treats.)
2. Next week we’re going to Orlando, and best of all, to Legoland Florida, including the water park. Review to come! (we went to the park last year, but I think the water park wasn’t open then)
3. I’ve been working so hard lately that next week might actually feel like a vacation after all, despite spending it with my family!
4. I really need to dig out everyone’s shorts. And sun screen. And swim diapers. And other things that don’t start with S.
5. Remember a while back I wrote about my whole approach to baby food? I was recently sent some new pouches of baby food from a Canadian brand called Love Child Organics. Their products are Canadian-made, BPA-free, great for travel, and include quinoa (rich in amino acids) and acerola fruit (a source of Vitamin C). I mixed the apple, banana and blueberry pouch with some yogurt and Charlie was very into it. Hurray for more variety available at major retailers like Wal-Mart. (I received 3 pouches worth $4 total to review. I was not compensated in any other way.)
6. I just did my taxes. The results are unusually terrible. However, I will happily pay the bill because yay for the (crumbling, alas) social safety net!

What’s new with you?

Hey, did you enter my Yoplait Source Greek yogurt and Lululemon gift card giveaway yet? (This post, like that post, is written because I am a part of the Life Made Delicious Ambassador Program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of General Mills. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.)

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About two weeks ago, I finally got tired of warm and wintery meals. Like, enough already. It’s Spring and forget the continuing cold temperatures outside, I’ve had enough stews and roasts.

So I’m very thankful for Ontario hothouse tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s not summer so we don’t have a huge variety of homegrown fruits and vegetables yet. Farmers growing them in greenhouses means that we can have local produce available most of the year.

I’ve been buying loads of tomatoes and keeping dinners pretty quick and simple by not actually cooking vegetables – chopped or sliced tomatoes are so easy and so tasty.

I’ve made bruschetta topping a couple of times lately. I keep it really simple: chopped hothouse or plum tomatoes, chiffonade of  basil (did you like that fancy cooking term I just threw in there?), grated or finely chopped garlic, salt, and olive oil. Check out this Tomato-Goat Cheese Bruschetta recipe from Life Made Delicious for an even fancier yet still easy idea.





And yes, forgive my completely-not-local avocados  but these fish tacos I made were a winner with everyone in the family – even my pickiest eater. This dinner was slightly more complicated. I plastered some sole fillets with some Bajan seasoning I found at the back of my fridge (just like my grandmother used to do), breaded them in panko and shallow fried them. Broken pieces of the cooked fish were placed into small grilled corn tortillas, with homemade guacamole and chopped tomatoes, and with some coleslaw as a topper or side.
If you want to cheat, Life Made Delicious has a recipe that is just much easier – using frozen fish fillets, and Old El Paso taco kit, and pre-made coleslaw means you can have fish tacos on the table quickly even if you don’t know what a chiffonade of basil is.

Visit Life Made Delicious for even more dinner ideas.

I bought myself a ten-class yoga pass a few months ago. And I’m very thankful it had a long expiry date on it because between the husband’s business trips and various other commitments  and me just not feeling like leaving the house because it’s too cold or miserable (read: too lazy), I’ve only been three or four times. But now! The sun is shining and the husband is home more often and I’m going to start going again. I swear. Because I do feel better when I go. Much more balanced.

Yoga is not only about a good stretch and bend. It also focuses you on how your body is, sort of, ‘feeling’ in general, and sometimes it can give you some clarity in your head space. Of course, other times, the thoughts creep in. I’ve actually mentally composed some blog posts while lying on my mat. If only I had drafted them in WordPress.

Yoplait ® Source ® Greek yogurt is interested in balance. Here’s the commercial part of this post. It’s Yoplait’s new product, and it’s got twice the protein of regular Source yogurt for only 50 calories (and no added sugar). I’ve been bringing the small pots to work this week and I can report the vanilla and lemon flavours are tasty and satisfying. You can use it to find the balance between a tasty morning or afternoon snack, and a filling low-calorie food.

Would you like to try it out? Additionally, would you like some new yoga pants or a shiny new mat? I am excited to be able to give away a great prize pack, including coupons for Yoplait ® Source ® Greek and a Lululemon $100 gift card.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post by 10pm EST on Friday April 26 2013. Tell me how you try to find balance.
2. One comment per person, please.
3. Please be Canadian, and make sure your entry includes a way to contact you in case you win.
4. I’ll use my And the Winner Is plug-in to randomly select one entry to win, soon after contest close.
5. Please note that people may enter across multiple blogs for this prize pack, but you may only win one.
6. If you are selected as the winner, I’ll contact you soon after close to ask for your mailing address to provide to Mom Central Canada, who will send you your prize in June or July.
7. Good luck!

Disclosure – I am participating in the Life Made Delicious Ambassador Program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of General Mills. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.

I had a day off today. And I completely indulged myself. Here’s how it went down:

• Was awoken by weekday alarm. Turned it off and rolled over.
• Walked the kids to school. In pouring rain. Like a hero.
• Went to local bakery. Bought a giant blueberry danish and a sourdough baguette.
• Did laundry, including delicates, which I never get around to.
• Puttered around the kitchen and dining room, doing odd jobs. What? That’s not fun for you?
• Went and got my hairs did. Oh, it had been much too long. My hair was completely depressing me before.  A little shape, some long side swipe-y bangs, ah, that’s better. (Until after I wash it and it doesn’t look anything like this anymore.)

• Took a streetcar ride to King and Spadina. Proceeded to shop and lunch.
• Spent a gift card at Winners on nail polish and sunscreen and hair product in anticipation of Florida trip at the end of the month.
• Grabbed a burger for lunch. And a Cherry Coke.
• Selected new Naot summer sandals in anticipation of Florida trip at the end of the month (review to follow).
• Dropped into Homesense for some browsing.
• Met the kids at home after school.
• Connected our ancient GPS to the computer for the first time ever and didn’t make it explode.
• Served them all a (fairly lame, but whatever) crockpot dinner.
• Escaped briefly to the grocery store for the upcoming week’s provisions.

And now I’ve blogged it out. And that’s always good, too. Man, today really filled my bucket, you know? A few selfish hours in there, and I feel like I’m facing the weekend not completely drained already.

Next up in the spring of self-care series? Yoga and yogurt! Two words that not only start with the same first three letters, but are linked by a gift card giveaway!

It feels a bit like I’m emerging from a cocoon. Slowly. The last few weeks have been cold and miserable as winter kept lingering and there’s just been way too much solo parenting so I’ve basically been housebound except for going to work. All of these things make me cranky. I haven’t been taking care of myself physically or mentally, and this all needs to change.

This weekend I put away the snowsuits, and shaved my legs. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Expect spring and self-care to be running themes for posts I have coming up. Recipes with fresh ingredients (I’m tired of hot meals – I’m craving fresh veggies), more outdoor activities and just generally trying to treat myself a bit better, all to come out of a late-winter lull. It helps that we might actually reach double-digit temperatures this week. One of these posts will include a pretty awesome giveaway thanks to my friends at General Mills and Mom Central Canada. Like a $100 gift card of awesome. Watch this space.

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What have you been up to? March just flew by entirely too quickly, despite all that housebound-ness. One fun thing we did at the end of the month was attend an event celebrating the launch of the WotWots children’s television show on DVD in Canada. The WotWots airs on Corus Entertainment’s 24-hour preschool cable channel, Treehouse.

It’s the perfect kind of show to introduce Charlie to eventually, but of course the older two managed to turn the stuffed WotWot toys into weapons. These are my children.